AXENT Unveils E-Security Strategy to Protect and Enable E-Business; Introduces 'Smart Security Architecture' that Enables Customers to Implement the 'Right' Level of Security.

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 30, 1999--

AXENT Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXNT), one of the world's leading information security solution providers, today unveiled its e-security strategy to enable companies to safely facilitate e-business and e-commerce initiatives. AXENT's e-security strategy leverages its unique, comprehensive Lifecycle Security(TM) solutions to assess, protect, enable and manage security related to the dynamic challenges organizations face as they conduct more business over the Internet. To support this initiative, AXENT(TM) also introduced the "Smart Security Architecture" to enable customers to implement the "right" level of security, aligned with their business needs.

According to a recent Forrester Research report, 80 percent of companies state that security is one of the biggest barriers to creating electronic links with customers and partners. Yet, at the same time, business over the Internet is increasing, suggesting that companies may be engaging in e-business at significant risk to their vital information assets. AXENT's e-security strategy and Smart Security Architecture are designed to help companies minimize the trade-off between security and e-business. AXENT's e-security solutions allow companies to manage the risk to information assets and to facilitate e-business processes safely, implementing the "right" level of security needed to capture immediate e-business opportunities while developing a Lifecycle Security program that can easily adapt to new threats and changing business practices.

"The demand for e-commerce and e-business applications has moved security from a back-end technology for protecting data to a critical business enabler. AXENT's customers understand that security is critical to enabling e-business communications with their customers, partners, suppliers and employees," said John Becker, CEO and chairman of AXENT. "The e-business opportunity requires a new class of `e-security' providers that can align security risks and business practices to help companies safely deploy e-business in today's dynamic, Internet-driven environment. With a broad solution set consisting of award-winning security software and unmatched services and expertise, AXENT is positioned unlike any other vendor to be our customers' trusted security partner."

"Companies racing to beat 'virtual' competitors are moving critical information to Internet sites without the appropriate level of security in order to avoid being 'amazon.com-ed,'" said Steven Foote, senior vice president at the Hurwitz Group. "They need a security partner who has a smart business approach to help them quickly assess their risks and to deploy the appropriate level of security necessary to protect and enable new business initiatives."

Lifecycle Security Aligns Dynamic Business and Security Needs

Reflective of AXENT's leadership position in information security, its e-security strategy combines the company's award-winning products and services into solution sets that allow organizations to identify their security risks and align them with the particular business challenges facing their organization.

AXENT's Lifecycle Security approach assists customers to implement the "right" level of security by helping them prioritize the budgets and resources necessary to select, deploy, and manage the appropriate level of security needed for a particular e-business initiative. The Lifecycle Security model addresses the cyclical, dynamic nature of both e-security and Internet-enabled businesses, which must respond quickly to market opportunities and competitive challenges.

As part of the Lifecycle Security model, AXENT offers the widest range of market-leading products and services to meet the four critical areas of e-security:

--Assess vulnerabilities and ensure policy compliance to proactively reduce the business risk. Solutions include Enterprise Security Manager(TM) and NetRecon(TM).

--Protect critical information with perimeter security and detect attacks to information to maintain business integrity. Solutions include Raptor(R) Firewall, Intruder Alert(TM) and NetProwler(TM).

--Enable secure Internet communications between mobile employees, remote operations, suppliers, customers and other businesses to facilitate new revenue opportunities. Solutions include WebDefender(TM), Defender(TM), VPN solutions and PassGo(TM) solutions.

--Manage and administer users and resources to manage more with less. Management functionality and scalability is inherent in all AXENT products. Solutions include Enterprise Resource Manager(TM), Resource Manager(TM) for UNIX(R) and Privilege Manager(TM) for UNIX.

In addition to products, AXENT provides services to effectively implement and deploy e-security solutions based on the Lifecycle Security approach. AXENT services include consulting, training, and customer support to assist our customers before, during and after the implementation of security solutions. Consulting services are available through SNCi, an independent subsidiary of AXENT, offering customized and QuickStart programs to quickly and safely assess and protect e-business initiatives. Consulting is also available through our partnerships with more than 800 resellers and systems integrators worldwide. In addition, AXENT provides training and customer support around the world.

"IHS needed a security solution that effectively protects the confidentiality of health information being transmitted electronically," said Frank Schreibman, information security manager at Integrated Health Services. "AXENT was able to present us with the solutions to help us quickly meet this need. AXENT understood our business and the type of security needed for a new generation of electronic information in the healthcare industry."

"Many commercial and government organizations are using our e-security solutions today to enable e-business effectively and safely," said Greg Coticchia, vice president of marketing for AXENT. "AXENT is the only security company who can assess, protect, enable and manage their dynamic business challenges with a breadth of award-winning security solutions and expert services unmatched in the industry."

Smart Security Architecture

Recognizing that customers don't want piecemeal point products and have also rejected monolithic frameworks, AXENT delivers an alternative to both: Smart Security Architecture. The Smart Security Architecture, combined with AXENT's Lifecycle Security methodology, will advance customers' security coverage and capability to the next level, as they extend their business processes to customers, partners and suppliers as well as geographically disparate employees over the Internet.

Building smart and appropriate integration between products and services that deliver real value is the goal of Smart Security Architecture. It contains four vision initiatives for AXENT products: consolidated data and policies, security service, common components and integrated views across solutions. In addition, a key aspect of the architecture is its ability to scale from supporting a small number of systems to tens of thousands across multiple operating systems platforms.

Consolidated Data and Policies: At the foundation of AXENT's Smart Security Architecture are security policies that dictate the security components necessary for a specific security solution. To complement the policies, AXENT will provide a Security Data Warehouse that will hold all of the event data to facilitate auditing, reporting, logging and management. This enables corporations to leverage security information, including corporate security policies, across multiple solutions to save time and energy.

Common Components: Common components, including MMC interfaces, event handling, directory extensions, public key infrastructure (PKI) and agents and protocols, provide integration, consistency and development efficiency across all AXENT offerings.

Security Services: Unique from all other industry integration efforts, security services in the form of logical product suites will provide assessment services, intrusion detection protection and enabling security services. With this structure, a company can implement one or several security services to meet its specific needs.

Integrated Views: Integrated views of the services implemented will be provided through a real-time monitor that provides a consolidated view of the exceptional events and actions taken. An administrative view can also centrally manage the security services implemented. These views will centralize administration of users, policies, incident reporting and ongoing activity, and can also be integrated into industry frameworks from AXENT partners BMC Software Inc., Tivoli Systems, Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Company.

Integration Progress

AXENT recognizes the importance of integration to its customers and will continue to aggressively deliver against the vision of Smart Security Architecture. AXENT has already undertaken a major effort to integrate its products with each other and to integrate its products with those of other leading vendors. In the past year, AXENT has acquired two major product lines and introduced eight major product releases. This scope of work included 25 integration efforts between AXENT products within the last year. In addition, 18 integration efforts between AXENT and third party vendors were delivered over the past two years.

In the future, AXENT anticipates delivery of new services and product integration efforts within the context of Smart Security Architecture. This will allow AXENT customers to leverage their investment in AXENT e-security solutions, and concurrently other vendor products and frameworks they may have invested in for scalable, managed security.

"AXENT recognizes the importance of smart, appropriate integration for customers and will continue to aggressively roll out the four Smart Security Architecture integration areas outlined above," said Brett Jackson, president and COO of AXENT. "It is with this clear vision and track record of delivering that AXENT can meet the rigorous demands to provide customers with the breadth of products where security policy can be created, implemented, distributed and centrally viewed across any size organization."

To view AXENT's e-security strategy please visit: http://www.axent.com/esecurity.

About AXENT(TM)

AXENT Technologies, Inc., a global leader in information security, provides e-security solutions that maximize our customers' business advantage. As a trusted partner, AXENT delivers integrated products and expert services to assess, protect, enable and manage business processes and information assets through our unique Lifecycle Security(TM) approach. AXENT's award winning security solutions include policy compliance and assessment, firewall, intrusion detection, authentication, VPN, Web-access, single sign-on and user administration for the entire enterprise.

Headquartered in Rockville, MD, AXENT's customer-proven information security solutions are used by 45 of the Fortune 50 and governments worldwide. Contact AXENT via e-mail at [e-mail], or visit AXENT's World Wide Web site at http://vpo.axent.com.

AXENT, AXENT Technologies, the AXENT logo, Enterprise Security Manager, NetRecon, Raptor, Intruder Alert, NetProwler, WebDefender, Defender, RaptorMobile, PassGo, Enterprise Resource Manager, Resource Manager, Privilege Manager and Lifecycle Security are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States and certain other countries, of AXENT Technologies, Inc. or its subsidiaries. UNIX is a registered trademark licensed exclusively by X/Open Company, Ltd. Other product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.